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USA 1972: Chevrolet Vega threatens VW Beetle

While going through old issues of Wheels Magazine at the Sydney State Library I fell upon some info on the US car market in 1972: then the VW Beetle’s domination of the small car segment was being threatened by the new Chevrolet Vega… Despite fire-risk carburettor and exhaust problems necessitating the recall of 130,000 cars and sabotage on the assembly lines (!) the Vega topped 520,000 sales in the States only in 1972 with the formerly invisible class-leading VW Beetle reaching 560,000.

Please note this may not reflect the top of the ranking as it is only information about the small car segment. If you have more detailed information on the best-selling models in the US before 1974 please make sure to get in touch by commenting on this article!

Quite popular imported marques in the U.S.A in the 70´s were Volvo, Saab, Honda, Toyota, Datsun, Mazda, and Bmw. Fiat stand out and selling about 50.000 cars every year between 1970 and 1979 mainly 850 Spyder & Coupé, 124, 128, 124 Coupé, 124 Spyder, 131 ( Brava ), Ritmo ( Strada ) and Pininfarina Spyder. Lancia had also its glory days in the U.S. market with the Beta range and Montecarlo called there Scorpion because of the Chevrolet Montecarlo. Between 1975 and 1982( when Lancia pulled out of the american market ) the lancia Beta berlina sold about 3.100 examples, the Coupé sold about 11.000 examples. The Beta HPE about 1.600 the Spyder 2.100 and the Scorpion 2.500.

All data tables automatically lock up seven days after publication. As a premium member you unlock absolutely all data tables for all 6,500 articles on the site, accessible by clicking on “Read more” at the bottom of each article.

Premium members have access to: - All data tables of all articles on the site regardless of date of publication. This includes all Historical Data tables for over 100 markets spanning decades and, in the case of France, over 120 years of data. - All Full Year Reports data tables - 134 markets were covered for 2014 and we are aiming at 150 for 2015. These are restricted to premium members on publication day and do not have a 7-day free access period. - Complete exclusive data for markets such as the UK, Russia, Turkey, China imports, South Korea imports and South Africa. Exclusive articles do not have a 7-day free access period on BSCB either.